Pakistan’s president, prime minister and other Cabinet members were supposed to have been at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when a massive truck bomb detonated outside, killing 57 and injuring 266.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said their planned dinner was changed at the last minute, although did not say how far in advance it had been planned. The Speaker of the House, Fahmida Mirza, had planned the event for ministers, the president, their guests and various foreign dignitaries.
But at the last minute, President Asif Ali Zardari asked that the event be transferred to the Prime Minister’s compound, Malik told reporters during a handover service for Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek, who died in the blast.
No arrests have been made in connection with the attack. But Malik said suspicion is falling on militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions.
“I am not in a position to tell you who has done it, but (in) all the previous investigations, all the roads have gone to South Waziristan,” he said Sunday.
But Amir Mohammad, an aide to leader of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud, said he shared the country’s grief and was not involved.
Westerners in general don’t differentiate between Al Qaeda and Taleban. But, then, most Westerners don’t spend much time working at knowing the differences between radical Islamists and most Muslims.
Interestingly, the BBC is reporting the owner of the hotel is denying this very report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7628964.stm
Very suspicious. Who knew about this and when? The fact that the video footage ends just moments before the blast is ponderous and leads one to believe that this blast was a setup.
Tag line is interesting. Seems to me all four groups mentioned are separate entities all having a great interest in seeing the disappearance of Israel from the face of map with USA to follow as soon as possible.
What differences trump this?
Okay, I’ll take the bait. Let me guess …
One takes his religion seriously, the other one doesn’t?
One ignores large parts of the Qur’an, the other one doesn’t?
One undertands Islamic teachings and traditions, the other one doesn’t?
One shrieks, “Death to America!”, the other one shrieks, “Death to Israel!”?
One denies the violence inherent in the religion, the other one acts upon it?
Come oNNN. There is no way a truck bomb could do that much damage. Who stands to gain? I want the ±TRUTH±. Let’s hear what Adam Curry has to say about this….
Taliban, al Qaeda, and the rest of the Muslim extremist groups are all of the same lineage. It all goes back to the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 and their 1922 beef with the fall of the Caliphate (Ottoman Empire).
Most people, not just Americans, don’t take the time to research the differences, but, in the long run, it doesn’t matter since the aims are the same.
#5–grof==why do you exclude the “average” (arab) muslim?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7630024.stm
Now, some little known extremist group says the did to “kick out the Americans.” They even claimed to kill 250 US Marines! (out of a death toll of, so far, 53??)
So they blow up a hotel full of Muslim families breaking their Ramadan fast, brilliant!
Shouldn’t the title be…
Terrorists miss intended target
After all, they could blow up the hotel itself any day of the week. Why do it on the day with the most security?
this story is crap..they said in the video
that explosion in the truck cab is the driver setting off his suicide vest..
‘xcuse me? for starters, ever see the damage that results from a “real suicide vest bomber’s” vest going off? -that cab would have been ripped to shreds. what, he couldnt afford a “good” vest because he spent all his money
on high grade RDX?? (and who pulls the “aprox 600kg” of rdx/tnt number out of a hat as fact?)
-and just how much material is the cab that it can burn that brightly.. not to mention the edits and skip-framing that have no consistency..
this is a just another false flag setup in a long line of’em to help escalate a bigger upcoming plan in play..
what crap..
someone really needs to btch-slap the media into the stone age for trying to sell us this crap as fact..
-s
Eideard said, “Westerners in general don’t differentiate between Al Qaeda and Taleban. But, then, most Westerners don’t spend much time working at knowing the differences between radical Islamists and most Muslims.”
Umm, both groups you mentioned ARE radical Islamists. Your comment is, bizarre.
On another note, isn’t it weird that the video cuts off before the explosion?
Wait a minute. In the clip it said the RDX was set off by the fire started by the guy in the cab setting off his “suicide vest”.
You can burn RDX and it won’t explode. There is something way wrong with this report.
#11–Paddy==incorrect. Eideards comment is quite clear and intelligent–based on knowledge, world view, and values. The difference between two small extremists sects should be much less and less known than the difference between small extremist sects and the larger supposedly more moderate/progressive/liberal religious base from which they derive.
The mistake Eideard makes, along with other cultural relativists, is to identify what makes any group “extreme.” In this case, I would say any group that wants to exterminate any other group that is not of their faith is by defintion extreme===and that describes all four groups listed.
Moderate Muslims are just as extreme as any vest bomber==they are just waiting until they have greater numbers. In essence, they are wisely following the Powell Doctrine and they have patience.
The only difference between them is the smaller group is hotheaded and impatient, while the larger group is cool headed and patient.
I’m sure zorkor will second this after his next prayer round finishes up.
#13 “I would say any group that wants to exterminate any other group that is not of their faith is by defintion extreme===and that describes all four groups listed”
Yep.
wow, good job eidard, it took some work to work in a slam about people on the other side of the world who had nothing to do with this article. Only an a-hole would seriously try that. Good job a-hole.
I have had just about enough of this “a few bad apples” crap.
Supposedly there are millions of muslims somewhere that only want to live in peace and are ok with the fact that not everyone follows the rules of their religion.
Where are these people? The most stable, friendly majority muslim country I can think of is Turkey. Turkey is constantly teetering on the edge of being taken over by radicals. Egypt too.
I think The War on Terror would make a lot more sense if it focused tightly on the people who are doing all the bombing and left the rest of us alone.
If I were those guys once I found out who tried to kill me I’d feel I owed them something.
#16 – “Where are these people? The most stable, friendly majority muslim country I can think of is Turkey. Turkey is constantly teetering on the edge of being taken over by radicals. Egypt too.”
Well, there’s about 1.2 billion Muslims. Numbers range from 2% to 6% are extremists. That makes about 70 million. The extremists are mixed in with the moderates all over the world. Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, Africa, … basically all over the world. It’s not just the majority Muslim countries, they’re everywhere.
The terrorists did this attack to take revenge on the Pakistan cuz Pakistan has inflicted massive damage to their lines recently. Thanks to the corny US army who started firing near the border and killing innocent people, this operation has become a more challenge now. Cant the US do anything right?
boobs (bobbo) said “I’m sure zorkor will second this after his next prayer round finishes up.”
Sure I pray, I ain’t no stinking Atheist like you. 😉
>> Paddy-O said,
>> Umm, both groups you mentioned ARE radical Islamists. Your comment is, bizarre.
Not bizarre.
That’s like saying to your history teacher about WWII, “Spaniards, Germans, Japanese and Italians are all fascists. It’s bizarre that you’d expect me to know the difference!”
It’s really REALLY a bad sign that most Americans don’t even know who the hell we are fighting in the “war on terror.” And the ignorance, stunningly, include John McCain.
>> BdgBill said,
>> I have had just about enough of this “a few bad apples” crap.
>> Supposedly there are millions of muslims somewhere that only want to live in peace and are ok with the fact that not everyone follows the rules of their religion.
>> Where are these people?
Holy smokes, man. You need to travel.
Go to any Muslim country and make a few friends.
I’ll guess that 99.999% of Muslims have NOTHING to do with terrorism.
#21 “That’s like saying to your history teacher about WWII, “Spaniards, Germans, Japanese and Italians are all fascists. It’s bizarre that you’d expect me to know the difference!””
There are relative importances. Both groups I mentioned need to be exterminated. Getting a PHD in the history of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taleban post Soviet occupation just isn’t needed in order to understand that.
Hey, why don’t you go there and study the “culture” of the Taleban for a few years?
The story gets a tad more odd.
Apparently the US military has been shipping to the hotel under guard mysterious metal containers which automatically bypassed hotel security.
There must have been something important in the containers, because Al Qaeda knew about them too.
Where the fsck do these guys keep coming up with *THOUSANDS* of pounds of *military* explosives? I thought the all live in caves. Can you say “false flag” any one?